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Omicron variant may strike double vaccinated

Largely, scientists are skeptical that the Omicron variant can infect vaccinated individuals. However, a new study published on the medRxiv* preprint server has conducted neutralization assays using an Omicron isolate obtained from patients residing in the United Kingdom.

13 Dec 2021

CRISPR-Cas enzyme-based diagnostics to detect SARS-CoV-2 infection

A recent review in the journal Life provided a detailed description of CRISPR-Cas-based diagnostic techniques to identify severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection, but also emphasized the potential use of this technology towards developing effective molecular diagnostic platforms for any future pandemic.

13 Dec 2021

Scientists describe dynamic genomic landscape of tumor heterogeneity in hepatocellular carcinoma

Clinician scientists and scientists from the National Cancer Centre Singapore and A*STAR's Genome Institute of Singapore, in collaboration with Singapore General Hospital, the National University Health System, Duke-NUS Medical School, Nanyang Technological University, and collaborators from China, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines, have described a dynamic genomic landscape of tumour heterogeneity in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

13 Dec 2021

Characteristics of vaccine breakthroughs in fully vaccinated individuals in France with delta variant

In a recent observational study, scientists have described the characteristics of VBIs in fully vaccinated individuals in France.

13 Dec 2021

Iota-carrageenan inhibits replication of SARS-CoV-2 VOCs

Scientists have recently reported the efficacy of carrageenan against both the SARS-CoV-2 original strain as well as the Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta VOCs.

13 Dec 2021

Diversity in genetic data improves the ability to predict high cholesterol risk

Including data from people of diverse ancestries substantially improves certain genetic risk predictions in all populations, according to a study that examined the genes responsible for regulating blood cholesterol levels.

13 Dec 2021

SARS-CoV-2 omicron variant may evade host immune responses

A recent study has demonstrated that the omicron variant of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 has a higher ability to evade antibody-mediated neutralization than other variants of concern.

13 Dec 2021

MV130 immunotherapy boosts natural and vaccine-induced SARS-CoV-2 immunity in mice

A new mouse study found that intranasal administration of MV130 protected against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2.

13 Dec 2021

A method to eliminate mutants in the furin cleavage site of SARS-CoV-2 in Calu-3 cells

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12 Dec 2021

Autonomous genome annotation of SARS-CoV-2 genes, proteins and domains

In a new research paper, a group of scientists from various institutions offers a semi-supervised custom pipeline for annotating all SARS-CoV-2 genes, proteins, and functional domains.

12 Dec 2021

A pandemic-scale phylogenetic analysis tool

Researchers develop a phylogenetic package that incorporated several pandemic-specific optimization and parallelization techniques.

12 Dec 2021

A new rapid and inexpensive PCR method to detect SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant

A new study reports a method using four PCR tests to distinguish infection with the Omicron variant from that caused by other variants.

12 Dec 2021

First locally acquired infection of Omicron variant confirmed in San Diego

Officials at the San Diego County Health and Human Services Agency, working in collaboration with scientists at University of California San Diego and Scripps Research, have announced the second confirmed case — and first locally acquired infection — of the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

12 Dec 2021